Christmas for a Nebraska Soldier

Andrew S. Wadsworth in 1898 went with the
First Nebraska Regiment to the Philippines as a soldier in the
first phase of the Spanish American War. He had previously been
employed in his uncle's jewelry shop in Beatrice and while overseas
corresponded regularly with his Nebraska relatives.

The First Nebraska arrived in Manila on
July 17, 1898, after a stopover in Honolulu. December of that
year found Wadsworth and his fellow soldiers in the field and
waiting for some promised Christmas boxes from home.

However, the troops were disappointed;
no Christmas boxes arrived. Andrew wrote on January 2, 1899,
to his sister and brother: "The Christmas dinner we had
was the only thing worth mentioning on that day." The dinner
must have been a sumptuous one; it included, according to Andrew,
"oyster stew with olives and pickles, baked chicken with
dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, mashed potatoes and gravy,
bread, butter, jam, cakes, cookies, chocolate, oranges, bananas
and cigars."

The failure of the Christmas boxes to arrive
was due to the changing political and military situation in Washington
and in the Philippines. Optimists at first thought that American
troops would be brought home quickly, and the shipment of boxes
was halted. But as it became clear that American troops would
remain in the Philippines far longer than anticipated, the boxes
were sent after all. Andrew wrote on March 8: "We had a
Christmas last week when our boxes came and say, it was good
to see the things that tumbled out of them-everything from pins
to night dresses. I got candy, jell[ied] preserves, papers, books,
needles, and little things that helped to fill up, and fruit
cake-was common stuff but so good."

Andrew was wounded in April of 1899 and
returned from the Philippines to Nebraska in early 1900.